1. Field of the Invention
Class 285/238/239/242
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
Of the literally millions of air hoses in use today, the overwhelming majority are employed indoors for mechanical air tools and are not susceptible to winter time freezing. No need exists nor thought given to protecting systems and hose connectors from freezing up. Indoor systems not withstanding, there are more than a hundred thousand automobile tire inflator machine systems located outdoors, primarily at gasoline service stations serving the driving community and used by customers year round, night or day, summer or winter. These outdoor systems are necessarily minimalist in nature and employ the same minimum effort air hose connector devices as the indoor systems. The system hoses frequently freeze up in winter making the systems inoperative. There is a question as to why some hoses freeze and others nearby in identical weather do not. After extensive cold-chamber study and testing by the applicant it was determined that the more active hoses froze and the lesser ones regardless of the weather did not. It requires frequent usage in very dry winter air for sufficient water vapor to be injected into the system to form ice particles large enough to create a problem. A hose used once a month will never freeze up, a hose used ten times a day is almost a freeze up certainty. It is then, that during winter when the outdoor temperature drops below freezing, atmospheric water vapor introduced into the filling hose in each compression cycle will condense on the walls of the airway along its length to liquid water and if cold enough to ice. As the ice builds up and as the hose is flexed during the tire inflation activity frequently goodly pieces of ice break off the walls and are carried or pushed by the high pressure air stream toward the outlet end of the hose. The ice particles if they meet any type of obstruction within the hose or attached filling gauge pile up and effectively block the airway until thawed. While the above is straight forward, no practical method or means has been found heretofore to prevent it in the twenty five or so years of outdoor air machine popularity. It develops that the internal configuration of the conventional minimum-effort hose end connector device is in fact the almost sole contributor to ice obstruction and improvement measures of the device are the focus of this invention. Examination of brochures and catalogs of the major connector manufactures displaying hundreds of connector designs by presumably the most skilled designers in the world finds no configuration comparable to the proposed geometry.